recommended

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

John Mackenzie directed this speculative drama that stars Danny Aiello as Jack Ruby, the man who fatally shot Lee Harvey Oswald, and the events that led him there, where he was the owner of a Dallas strip club who hires popular headliner Candy Cane(played by Sherilyn Fenn) who ends up under the wing of the mafia, and becomes a mistress of President Kennedy. Ruby does favors for the mafia while simultaneously informing on them for the FBI, and eventually is used by a mysterious hit man for either the CIA or Mafia to kill Oswald, though he suspects he's as much a patsy as Oswald seems to be. David Duchovny co-stars as police officer Tibbet. Despite a good performance by Aiello, film is a pale knockoff of the far superior "JFK". Not bad, but entirely forgettable.

***SPOILERS*** Highly fictionalized account of the life and times, circa 1962-63, of nightclub owner and mobster Jack "Sparky" Ruby the assassin of accused, but never convicted in a court of law, JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Ruby is made out to be both an FBI informer and well as low level member of the mob in the film in him leading a double life as a both good an bad guy. Were given to understand that Ruby was somehow involved in the attempted assassination of Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro that backfired and put him on the outs with his mob bosses. There's also a totally made up event where Ruby travels to Cuba to get mob boss Santo Alicante out of the country where he's told by his mob controller Louie Vitali to whack him. Ruby feeling he's being set up to be knocked off later by the mob ends up whacking Viteli instead. Jack Ruby is also given a love interest in the film in sexy blond runaway Sheryl Ann Dujean aka Candy Cane whom he takes under his wing, after running away from her abusive husband Hank, and make her the star attraction of his Dallas strip joint the Carousel Club. The big event in the movie is of course the afternoon of Novemberb 22 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinate in Dallas Texas. Were given the impression that Jack Ruby was somehow involved in the gunning down of JFK by knowing the plans to have him assassinated in advance. We even see Ruby moments before JFK's assassination focusing his attention on the picket fence at the infamous gassy noel where JFK's actual assassin was believed to be hiding at. That instead, as the shots was fired, of looking towards the Texas School Book Depository Building where the fatal shots that killed JFK supposedly, according to the Warren Commission, came from.As for the highlight in Jack Ruby's career the gunning down of a handcuffed and helpless Lee Harvey Oswald it's made to look like he was somehow hypnotized drugged or threatened to do it. The film already showed us that Ruby was certain that Oswald wasn't JFK's assassin yet like a mind controlled zombie he walks nonchalantly into the parking garage where Oswald was to be transfered to the Dallas Detention Center and without as much as a second thought in his head blows him away! All that in front of not only dozens of police and newsmen but some 150 million viewers watching the entire shocking spectacle on live TV!Ruby of course took whatever he had to do with both the JFK assassination and cold blooded murder of Lee Harvey Oswald to his gave three years later dying of cancer that's suspected by many the CIA injected him with. In fact Ruby was, this is real life not just in the film, willing to tell the American public everything he knew about both killings and who ,in the case of the JFK assassination, was behind them but was never given the chance by the Warren Commission. Whom very obviously, in it's cover up like actions, didn't want the truth behind these tragic events to ever see the light of day!

Jack Ruby was an individual that epitomized the plight of someone who became perpetually victimized by his environment. Growing up in a tough and tumble south side neighborhood in Chicago, Jack Ruby had to earn everything the hard way! His testosterone driven theatrics were always justified under the belligerent premise that he loathed and excoriated all caitiff behavior and mannerisms which lurked in his threatened existence! Actor, Danny Aiello, was extremely well suited to the role of Jack Ruby. Desultarily assembled and jagged around the edges, Aiello portrayed the role of the disgruntled owner of the Dallas strip club lounge, Jack Ruby, with an absolutely powerful and well articulated perfection. The mindset of Jack Ruby was one in which he had an emblematic adoration of John F. Kennedy. Ruby was keenly aware of the fact that the assassination of Kennedy was a conspiracy! Knowing this, Ruby's conception of the entire fiasco was one whereby he felt that it was incumbent upon him to implement a simple eye for an eye endeavor of vigilante justice. This being Ruby's objective, Lee Harvey Oswald became his prime target! Love, lust, collusion, money, violence, and organized crime were elements in Ruby's life that ended up becoming a lethally inconclusive and ephemeral obsession with him! Nothing ever made sense in Jack Ruby's world, and, as a result, his adversarial circumstances made him respond accordingly! The intensity with which this film depicts Ruby's rudimentary defense mechanisms, wound up being incredibly thought provoking. Jack Ruby's life became one big tenet for convoluted sensationalism; Killing John F Kennedy and killing Lee Harvey Oswald, were actions which were induced by the prevailing agitation which emanated from the megalomania cal underworld! All in all, the intertwining integral facets of implication in this aggregate potpourri of political tumultuousness for all of this violence, eventually collaborated as a scenario for situational pandemonium. This politically high profile charade brought about a pejorative pique for a bevy of fame famished reprobates to thrive on. Throughout history, this has always been the nefarious scourge; Who was John Wilkes Booth? Who was Lee Harvey Oswald? Who was Sirhan Sirhan? And, of course, it goes without saying; Who was Jack Ruby? What made them famous? The heinous ordeal of murdering, or being related to the murder of a highly prominent political leader, has given all of these men an indelibly dreadful notoriety! The film "Ruby" authenticates the prevailing rancor during the Kennedy assassination escapades in a very scathing, yet poignant manner! The aspects to the Dallas strip club paradigm during the early 1960's was something which the directors and producers of this film executed flawlessly! Films which are candidly cogent about genuinely dire reactions tend to garner my favor far more readily than a high budget Hollywood bombshell flick with a myriad of special effects. The film "Ruby" is a one of a kind diamond in the rough which manifests an unpleasant amelioration concerning the vicious circle of assassinations during the Kennedy era. This movie did not just simply depict the occurrences pertaining to John F. Kennedy's and Lee Harvey Oswald's assassination, they also encompassed the visceral and motivational depravity behind these occurrences as well! Ultimately, cerebral vindication amongst many felonious misfits, as well as people who dealt with these sordid walks of life, became the intellectually diabolical villain which vitiated any respect which these people should have had for law and order in our American system of democracy! Having been to Dallas many times, the historical correlation this film makes to this city is very fascinating! The strip club which Jack Ruby owned is located in one of the nicest hotels in downtown Dallas! As a matter of fact, what was once Jack Ruby's strip club, is now a sports bar, that is somewhat amusing, isn't it? The assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the demented wiles associated with it, all have the dubious distinction of putting Dallas on the map for political terrorism! This movie is covertly compelling, and, I would recommend to any history buff, as well as all movie viewers, that they should see this film whenever they possibly can. "Ruby" is a difficult movie to find, and, it may only be available on video cassette, as in the thing you put in a -VCR- -YES, THAT ANTEQUATED MONSTER!!- Nevertheless, people should try to get a hold of it and view the movie, mostly on account of the fact that the film "Ruby" is very insightful and emotionally innovative! I give it a definite and resounding thumbs up!

A fascinating subject, that just didn't grab the audience. It flowed like molasses, and left me feeling as flat as the movie. I'm one of those who can't get enough of this subject, but there was very little here at all, and with the current trend to change the true stories, just to make them look better, you begin to wonder just how much, and which parts, are really true.